ARMENIANS FROM INDIA TO URGE OBAMA TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2009 01:11 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenians of Kolkata (India) are going to write
to US President Barack Obama, urging him to recognize the massacre
of Armenians in Turkey on April 24, 1915, as genocide’, freelance
French journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net..
Students of the city’s Armenian College have collected photographs
and historical data about Armenian Genocide after a year-long
research. The data they have gathered has been collated in the
form of a film, which too will be presented for President Obama’s
consideration. Senior members of the city’s Armenian community, like
Peter Hyrapiet, Suzanne Reuben and Gulnaar Gilhooly have worked with
the students to help them with data collection and film-making.
"About a fortnight ago, even Australia accepted the massacre as
genocide. We just hope that the US also follows suit. Recent comments
by President Obama have encouraged the community across the world. We
hope that this year on April 24, he actually declares his country’s
acceptance of the darkest episode in the history of the community
as genocide," said head of the Armenian Church in India, Oshagan
Gulgulian, who has also spent a sizable part of his clerical life in
the US.
"Since the largest concentration of Armenians in India is in Kolkata,
we have taken the initiative here. We want the people of Kolkata,
who have always been very receptive to our community, to share our
pain. On that fateful day, 250 of our intellectuals were murdered by
the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople. Throughout that year, there
were more than a million murders. The genocide can be compared to
the Jewish holocaust," Gulgulian said.
The Armenian community wants Turkey to cease being the only major
country in the world to deny the Armenian Genocide.